Progressive have failed utterly to come up with comprehensive answers to this growing crisis. As such we have left the field open to the electoral success of right wing populists across Europe and in the US. This letter tries to briefly summarise a way forward and is fleshed out in the references above. It is to be hoped that will help in some small way to kick start an urgently needed process of finding progressive answers to one of the most destabilising and dangerous issue of our times.

• The way immigration utterly dominated your 20 June edition is a harbinger of things to come, as people grasp that this issue, and how to tackle it, will dominate the future of politics. To solve the migration crisis, which is tearing European and now US politics apart, will require a three-pronged approach. This must consider the pros and cons of immigration from the perspective of the countries the migrants have left, the migrants themselves, and the views of the majority in the country migrants have entered or are attempting to enter. The rapid rate of population growth in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean will add to the urgency of this approach.

Democratic, progressive and internationalist policies would include ones that meet the concerns of the majority with stricter border controls, but which also grasp the urgency of seeing all foreign policy, aid and trade agreements in terms of improving the lives of the majority in poorer countries, and thus helping to minimise permanent migration globally. Progressive policies could range from increasing living standards for the poorer section of society through fair taxation to limiting arms sales, decarbonising economies and reducing resource use.

Finally, the other forces that have caused insecurity in the recipient countries – globalisation, austerity and the increasing additional threat of automation roaring up the skill ladder – must be reversed. The disruption at present caused by migration could be the prism through which such long-sought goals finally become reality.Colin HinesAuthor, Progressive Protectionism

ABOUT THE BOOK

‘Progressive Protectionism’ details why ever more open borders are increasing inequality, reducing economic activity and threatening the environment. It explains how countries could rebuild and diversify their economies by limiting what finance, goods, services and people they allow to cross their borders.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Colin Hines could be unkindly described as a ‘c’ list environmentalist who has rattled around the environment movement for decades campaigning on population, food, new technology and unemployment, nuclear proliferation and on the adverse environmental and social effects of international trade. He was the Co-ordinator of Greenpeace International’s Economics Unit having worked for the organisation for 10 years. This broad background resulted in his position that the only way to solve these problems was by replacing globalisation’s open borders with ‘Progressive Protectionism’.
He has been ahead of the game in three areas central to this approach. He has published reports and books calling for ‘Green Protectionism’ since 1990 and he was one of the few on the left and active in green politics who foresaw the need and political centrality of curbing inadequately controlled permanent migration. Finally he coined the term ‘Green New Deal’ and convenes the group of the same name which has campaigned for Green Quantitative Easing (QE) to help provide the enormous funding necessary for a nationwide green infrastructure programme. This will result in increased environmental protection and provide jobs in every community.

ALSO BY COLIN HINES

ART DECO LONDON
This lavishly illustrated book shows where in London magnificent examples of art deco can be found, eaten and quaffed in, slept in, shopped in, and campaigned for.

THE KEWTEES
Tiny, plump and gloriously green, the Kewtees find themselves uprooted from their forest home in the strangest of circumstances. They have to travel far and overcome many difficulties before they reach the safety of the Temperate Greenhouse at Kew Gardens.